First race of the season - 4th March

The alarm sounded at 3am on Sunday morning and whilst any sane person would be looking forward to at least another 4/5 hours in bed it was time to get up and load the van for the first race of the 2012 season - a 10 km run / 42km TT / 3.5 km run duathlon in Maidstone  Kent. On the drive down around Dartford tunnel the heavens began to open to prove the forecasters right and I got the distinct impression that my wife Judith, already not keen on getting up at 3am, was even less keen on cheering me on from the roadside in heavy rain - oh well...

On the other hand, as always, I was absolutely wired for it, aided by copious amounts of Red Bull and plenty of carbs. This was my first ever duathlon and athough having trained well for it, the last running race I competed in was at school so I was feeling a little more apprehensive than usual. This was not helped at all by the sight of some extremely fit, very fast looking runners stretching and lungeing all around me. I felt very much out of place and my wife summed it up by looking at me as you would a condemed man, and saying "good luck "...

But I steeled myself to try my best and wearing my St Neots skinsuit with pride prepared for the starter's gun. With a bang we were off. As a field of 110 entrants set off, I'd vowed not to go out too hard and for the first mile settled in to a steady-ish running pace of around 7.30 min/mile. After a couple of miles I felt good and some runners who had gone out too fast started to come back to me as they faded, and I increased my effort to around 7 min/mile pace. I prefer adverse weather anyway so soon felt good and took on water at the water station - a comical event that involved paper cups, a faceful of water and no gain whatsoever! I came in from the run in 42.49 and in about 23rd posistion overall, so felt pretty good about that. Into the transistion area where my bike was racked, I quickly took off my trainers  and donned my aero lid and ran out with the bike to the mounting area in a 2nd best transistion time off the day of 20 seconds.

On more familiar territory on the bike, I immediately put the hammer down and despite the rain and the fact that I was on my road bike with tri-bars and not a full TT bike like those around me, I passed 8 other riders and didn't get passed, and despite a very tough, hilly end to the 26.5 mile TT course, I came into the transistion area again completing the TT in 1 hr 17 min 37 secs.

Running shoes back on, helmet off and a good slug of water and away again in a transistion time of 37 seconds - another pleasing  time. But something was not right; my running  legs felt like jelly and despite the fact that my heart rate was near maximum, I didnt seem to be going very quickly. This is the dreaded bike to run effect that I'd read about and been warned about so much.

I just concentrated on the mile of uphill road in front of me and gradually my stride lengthened and it all came back to me. I didn't pass anyone or get passed, and ran the last 3.5km on my own, feeling strong to the finish. I was very pleased and even managed a sprint of sorts to the finish gantry where I promptly collapsed gasping for dear life with a finish time of 2 hours 17mins and 38 seconds. This gave me 15th overall and 5th in my age group of 40/44.

I really enjoyed the event and there was great camaraderie as everyone when finished hung around to clap in and congratulate each finisher, a nice touch I thought. The winner set a new course record of 1 hour 57.45, the only one under 2 hrs, and me being me I immediately began to think "Right - where can I find 20 minutes by next year..."

Richard Hancock